British Rail Motorail - Give Your Car A Holiday 1967

[D.C. Burtonshaw]

Brilliant film! Thanks for putting it up Del, wish I could got back to '67 and experience that.

[Mickyosan]

Great film Del and it really promotes an integrated, national transport network. Some super wheels as well, including the 420G at the start.

The part of the film where the train is going past the motorway is, I think, on the run from Taunton to Exeter where the railway runs parallel with the M5 so this train will have been en route to St.Austell in Cornwall on 1V38, 07:45 from Olympia. Here's a photo of from the Sweeney era and note the fourth vehicle which is a restaurant car to get you fully in the mood for your forthcoming holiday. www.flickr.com/photos/geoffsimages/12225527934

Various wagons were used to convey cars. The scenes at Olympia are of 'Cartic 4' double-deck car carriers which weren't used a massive amount on Motorail services because not every destination could accommodate double-deck wagons although I think Perth could. Cartic-4s were in fixed formations of five wagons and in a clever piece of design, the ends of each wagon were articulated on a single bogie below, thereby only using three bogies for each pair.

The 'wagons' mainly used on daytime services were actually MkI coach underframes with the bodysides and all internal items removed and replaced with a wooden deck and a small drop-down flap at each end to permit end-loading. After conversion these were referred to as Carflats. After Olympia closed to Motorail in May '81, Euston was used for services to Stirling and cars were loaded in this manner, as they were at St.Austell.

The final type of 'wagon' used and seen in the film were covered carriages called General Utility Vehicles (GUV) of which BR built about 900 for parcels traffic but some were converted for end loading Motoral use.

Up until about twenty years ago when the Lawn at Paddington (the Lawn is the GWR name of the Paddington concourse) was made larger to accommodate more space and room for retail crap, the overnight Paddington - Penzance sleeper (the Down Midnight) which still runs, had a couple of GUVs at the London end and always went in platform 1 (as I think it still does now) which had a small ramp for Mororail cars to load/unload. Hard to believe now, but cars came straight off Eastbourne terrace, down the adjacent taxi route, through an access portal and straight onto the Lawn and into the GUVs on P1. For the Up Midnight arriving at London from Penzance, the two GUVs on the rear were shunted off upon arrival and deposited in P1 for the opposite manoeuvre.

Mororail was still a massive service into the early 80s (Brockenhurst - Stirling overnight in sleepers anyone?) but dwindled as the 80s dragged on and eventually bit the dust by the late 80s. The Euston - Stirling finished in about 88ish. I did this train in 1983 with my parents on the daytime train and it was great. Passengers were conveyed in lovely MkI first clas compartment carriages and we even had a three course chicken tray meal with wine, plus my dad didn't have to drive 417.44 miles which is Euston - Stirling by train...

[Perfect Pseudonym]

Nice one, Del. Thanks for finding that, really enjoyed watching it 

The Olympia buildings are still pretty much intact aren't they? Are they still used for anything or are they just sort of empty - and possibly a time capsule contained within?

When I were a nipper, the family did consider a trip to Scotland using Motorail, but never happened. Can't remember why, probably because a lack of confidence of the Marina actually getting to Olympia in the first place - let alone Scotland!

Shame, looked like it would have been a good way of travelling. Presumably it never really paid its way in the end.

[Boycie]

Great background music Dell boy, but not as good as the Sweeney background themes. Can you P.M me 

[Villain]

The waiting room at Kensington Olympia was used briefly as a location for filming 'Performance' in September '68, in the scene where 'Chas' (James Fox) is supposedly waiting for a train to Exeter. It was used as a stand in for Paddington, but you can see clearly through the window behind Fox that it's actually Olympia!

When I was based at Old Oak Common depot in the early '80s we sometimes worked inter-regional freights through 'Kenny O' to various places south of the river, and even then it still looked as though it was stuck in the past.

Villain

[Del Boy]

Oct 26, 2015 19:24:12 GMT Boycie said:

Great background music Dell boy, but not as good as the Sweeney background themes. Can you P.M me 

Boycie do you want the Sweeney ones as in meet video ?

[Boycie]

Yea yea

[Mickyosan]

Great info Villain. We'll have a railway based 1970s discussion offshoot at a future meet! Used to love bunking round OC in the late 70s/early 80s although if I did that today as a thirteen year old I'd get arrested as a terrorist!

[Villain]

Oct 27, 2015 12:28:47 GMT Mickyosan said:

Great info Villain. We'll have a railway based 1970s discussion offshoot at a future meet! Used to love bunking round OC in the late 70s/early 80s although if I did that today as a thirteen year old I'd get arrested as a terrorist!

If you did manage to bunk Old Oak today you'd be wasting your time Micky, the loco depot is long gone and a concrete making depot (for Crossrail) has been built where the turntable used to be. The HST depot is still there along with some of the old carriage sidings which are now used by FGW. Whenever I pass by now I can hardly bear to look at the place...

Villain

[Del Boy]

So where are the Loco's these days then Villain